Gas Arabia Summit to Address Shale Gas, Flaring Issues in Middle East

With recent technological developments in the west, there are numerous concerns that the Middle East will face challenges in developing its unconventional gas sector. The 2012 Gas Arabia Summit organised by The Energy Exchange aims to address all the issues and provide a blueprint on how to mitigate challenges and build a thriving gas industry.

According to an Economist Intelligence Unit report commissioned by industry technical advisor GL Noble Denton, today in the US gas from shale is approaching 30% of natural gas production. This is a significant increase from its 2% ten years ago, strengthening the debate that demand and exports for Middle East’s gas will decline.

Prior to the Gas Arabia Summit, BP will host an Unconventional Gas Day on 2 December 2012, to provide attendees in the Middle East’s gas industry with a comprehensive understanding on the region’s current unconventional resources, availability forecasts, and technology.

Industry experts at the Unconventional Gas Day will highlight the advancements made by the US in significantly enhancing its unconventional gas sector over the past five years. The requirements to replicate the shale gas revolution outside America, with all the steps to move from advanced modelling, to a fully functional drilling system will be covered.

Day one of the Gas Arabia Summit will commence with an official opening and welcome address from His Excellency Nasser Al Jashmi, Undersecretary, Ministry of Oil and Gas, Sultanate of Oman.

Senior Executives from reputed oil and gas companies that include BP, Petroleb, PDO, E.ON Rhurgas, Shell and more, will take the podium on 3 December 2012, to provide their respective insights on the global gas industry. These insights will include: regional and international demand and supply; repositioning the Middle East on the worldwide energy map; opportunities from newly found reserves, potential investments and the creation of a local gas market; learning’s from international players key technologies, techniques, best practices and more.

Day two of the Gas Arabia Summit will focus on how to strategically strengthen the future of the gas industry in the GCC. Representatives from both IOCs and NOCs will address the challenge of energy security, providing an overview of current projects under development in the region and their link with economic growth.

In addition, the Head of LNG Marketing for Qatargas and Vice President, Origination for Cheniere International will provide an in-depth analysis on the worldwide and regional LNG market. They will analyse Qatar’s leading position in this sector, followed by the North American LNG dynamics and their impact on the global LNG scenario. Additionally they will also discuss the business rationale behind LNG’s marketing in the growing Indian economy.

In a survey conduced earlier this year by Naukrigulf.com with over 120 recruiters in the region, 77% of recruiters had predicted the addition of new jobs in 2012. Among all sectors, recruiters from the oil and gas sector were most buoyant with 83% stating that new jobs will be created in the second half of 2012.

Supporting these findings, one of the topics to be discussed will be human skills; how to overcome the challenge of talent shortage and proactively develop human capital in the oil and gas sector.

At the 2011 Gas Arabia Summit, an interactive discussion based on the results of the Gas Flaring Survey, sponsored by Saudi Aramco was held. The survey was organised to benchmark on the regional awareness on gas flaring and to better understand what companies are practically implementing to shift the trend.

The final day of the Gas Arabia Summit will be dedicated to Gas Flaring. The latest facts with regards to wasting this valuable resource will be provided by experts from Salalah Methanol Company, Oman LNG and Daleel Petroleum Company among others.

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LNG World News Staff, October 16, 2012